Diplomacy & Politics Archive

Many commentators have described 2013 as a “lost year” for the Obama administration. The enthusiasm generated by the second inaugural quickly dissipated in continued stalemates with Congress, culminating in the government shutdown in October. No major pieces of legislation were passed, nor did the United States spearhead new international initiatives. Some of this can be attributed to the famed “second-term curse.” As I noted in these pages after the president’s re-election, “Every second-term president over the past 30 years—Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush—overestimated the amount of political capital their re-election generated, and each was also distracted by […]

Mexico’s recently enacted energy reform bill marks an important first step on the long path of transforming the country’s energy sector. Now that the constitutional changes have been ratified by a majority of states, the real work of drafting the enabling legislation, creating new institutions and profoundly changing many existing ones now begins. All of this will take time, and there will be much to debate along the way. The reform’s ultimate success will depend on maintaining political support while managing public expectations during the long slog of implementation. While Mexico’s challenges in implementing the reform are complex and many, […]

During his campaign for president in 2008, Barack Obama promised that he would restore America’s standing in the world—in part by using his unique multicultural background to better communicate with U.S. friends and foes alike. While Obama has certainly enjoyed some foreign policy successes, there is one region in which he has so far glaringly and disappointingly fallen well short of that promise: Africa. By every conceivable metric, Africa is growing in stature and importance. More than 60 percent of Africans are below the age of 25, and the continent’s population is expected to double by 2050 to more than […]

In December, the Philippine government and Muslim separatists in the country’s south reached a power-sharing agreement for governing the Muslim-dominated areas on the island of Mindanao. In an email interview, Steven Rood, the Asia Foundation’s country representative for the Philippines and Pacific Island nations, explained what the agreement implies for the economic development of the southern Philippines. WPR: How integrated are conflicted-affected areas of the southern Philippines with the rest of the national economy, and what impact has the conflict had in terms of economic development? Steven Rood: After decades of conflict, the economy of parts of the southern Philippines […]

Few countries have claimed for themselves the mantle of revolution as frequently and as fervently as Mexico. Previous efforts brought change, even revolutionary change, but failed to lift large parts of the population out of chronic poverty. That is about to change. Over the past 12 months, Mexico has launched a series of urgently needed but long-delayed fundamental reforms. Because of that, it now stands on the cusp of enormous change. The world is about to witness a country enter a phase of dazzling economic growth, with concurrent social change. The formula for tapping Mexico’s vast potential was never a […]